Future On The Horizon
by azea
Summary: Voldemort won. HP died along with many order members. HG and the few survivors of the war are in slave camps. DM comes in possession of HG. See how they turn the tables on Voldemort. D/H main , B/G and many more pairings. read and review.
1. the beginning

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters that are recognizable.

Author Notes: This is my second story. And my first Dramione. Hope you enjoy the read. And the main characters that are dead are: Dumbledore, Harry, Ron, Molly, Mad-eye, Tonks, Snape, Kingsley, the Lovegoods, Lavender, Dung. I may kill off more characters if I see fit. Anyway, on with the story.

It had been a year since the war was over and the light had lost. Harry Potter was dead, Voldemort reigned. The night of the battle was something no one would forget. The final war was gruesome, many innocent wizards and witches were mercilessly killed. Harry Potter, the light of the order and the wizarding world, at least the good part of the wizarding world, died. All because of the traitor on their side.

Oliver Wood! Who would have thought that the handsome Gryffindor quidditch captain was the traitor?! Harry had trusted him. Maybe not as much as he trusted Ron and Hermione, but he _had_ trusted him.

Whichever way you like to see, the prophesy had come true, "_neither can live while the other survives"_. Both sides had lost heavily. The warriors of the light were mourned by those few who fortunately, or unfortunately, survived.

Hardly a handful of the order members survived and a lot of them were in hiding. Some of them were Arthur Weasley and the twins, Lupin & son Teddy, Fleur & Bill Weasley and their daughter Molly, Alicia Keys, Dedalus Diggle.

And a few unfortunate ones who did not get a chance to go into hiding and those who protested against Voldemort were sent to slave camps.

There was chaos all around the wizarding world. The darkness lurked even on the brightest days of summer. Freedom was a word that people had forgotten existed. No one trusted the person walking beside them. Everyone lived in fear. None had the courage to stand up to the Dark Lord for fear of losing the few loved ones left.

Hogwarts was no longer the school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was more of a school of Dark Arts. Parents were afraid to send their children to Hogwarts. Well, those parents that weren't death eaters.

The muggle world was in a much worse condition. Muggles were raped, tortured and murdered for fun. The poor muggles didn't understand what was happening. They were confused, didn't know what to believe in, whom to trust and more importantly why they were put through this hell. Fathers were afraid to send their daughters out alone even in broad daylight. Mothers were afraid to let their kids out. It was a time of great confusion. They couldn't make head or tail of it.

The life in hiding was as horrible. Those in hiding did not have a job; they were being searched for by the ministry which was now a puppet whose strings were operated by Voldemort. People were giving up hope everywhere. There was none to lead them, to bring them to light, to finally get rid of the Dark Lord. People lived in fear, mayhem and dread, being forced to do things that they knew were wrong, but these horrible deeds needed to be done, if not for themselves then at least for fear of life of their loved ones.

------ The Dark Lord Rules (TDLR) Slave Camp-----

If life in hiding was horrible, then life in the slave camps was agony. The slaves comprised of muggleborns, blood traitors and those who opposed Voldemort. They were forced to wear rags. They were starved and worked hard. Most of the slaves were young witches and wizards. Some of them were just 11 years old. All muggleborn witches and wizards who were 11years old were brought to the slave camp instead of being sent to Hogwarts.

They were forced to do the dirty laundry of the pure-blood wizards, to collect wood from the near by forest areas, to clean various things like furniture, copper pans and million other things that did not need cleaning, to prune bushes. Since the camp was near Hogwarts, they were made to clean the floors, stairs, classrooms, common rooms and portraits of the castle. They also had to keep the grounds clean.

The death eaters used the slaves for various purposes- torture, murder, rape. They were used as guinea pigs for research of spells and potions. Many slaves died of the unbearable physical, mental and emotional pain. They were treated worse than elves.

The slave camp had both boys and girls of age – 11 to 21. They stood by each other. The elder ones gave up whatever little food that they had managed to scrap, to the younger ones. Sometimes during the night, they would teach the younger ones of spells, charms, hexes and curses that can be used if they ever came to hold a wand in their hands.

These slave camps were run by the low ranked death eaters. New recruits and students from Hogwarts practiced on the slaves in the camp. The slytherins from Hogwarts were readily willing to get ahead in their knowledge of dark arts by using the slaves to practice upon, but the students from the other houses were very reluctant to do so. All the same, if the protested they were punished severely.

A few former students of Hogwarts who survived the war for a fate worse than death were – Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Parvati Patil, Dean Thomas, Neville Longbottom, Michael Corner, _Justin Finch_-Fletcheley. They tried to be there for each other whenever and however possible.

One rainy September evening Hermione was helping move logs of wood from the forest to the camp, which was then to be chopped and dried for future use by the purebloods.

All of a sudden she heard a scream vent through the silent air. She dropped the log she was helping carry.

"You guys go ahead. I'll be along."

"Be safe ", whispered one of the other slaves. Hermione silently nodded and spun toward the general direction of the sound and started scurrying. She saw young Dennis Creevy being tortured by Alden Suille, a low ranked death eater, near a clearing.

Tears of pain were poring down Dennis's face but his eyes shone with the infamous Gryffindor courage. As Hermione sped by, her bare foot hardly came in contact with the forest bed. She reached the clearing and hid behind one of the broadest holy trees in the vicinity. She quickly looked around searching for something. She noticed a small garden snake slithering near by. She gingerly picked it up by its neck and flung it at Alden Suille and crouched into a near by bush.

"ARGH!" screamed the death eater as the snake hit him smack in his face. He was completely unaware of the fact that garden snakes are not poisonous. The snake may not have been poisonous but it quickly wrapped itself around the death eater's neck. He struggled to pull it of. Hermione was smirking in the bushes. Dennis was also having a little fun at the expense of the death eater. Alden finally succeeded. He quickly pointed his wand at the snake and shouted, "EVANASCO." The snake vanished into thin air. "Who's there? Come on out if you know what's good for you."

Hermione was smirking, completely hid by the bush. Frustrated the death eater muttered "Homenum revelio."

Author motes: This is my first dramione fic. Constructive criticism is welcomed. And please don't forget to review.


	2. time on my own

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the recognizable characters. Also, I have to admit that most of the spells I've used and will be using in this fiction are researched with the help of various Harry Potter sites. Though there are a few I've invented…. but you'll see them in later chapters.

Author Notes: first of all I would like to convey my special thanks to amrawn, jojobeyco, and silverbirch for their reviews. It is nice to know that you guys liked the first chapter!

And, I would also like to thank all those who added me to their Story Alert.

This chapter is longer than the first. I really hope you guys like it. So not forget to read and review!

Hermione tensed as she felt the wind swoosh (if that is even a word!) through her.

Suille's eyes narrowed as he realized someone was crouching in the bush near by. He quickly muttered, "Petrificus Totalus" pointing his wand at the bush and snarled as Hermione's limp body fell forward with a slight thud.

Dennis's eyes were wide with fear for Hermione, although she looked up defiantly into Suille's infuriated ones. He walked forward towards her and spat, "You'll pay dearly for that, mudblood." He lifted his wand and snarled, "Crucio." Hermione writhed in pain but refused to scream out in pain.

"Hermione…Hermione, why did you interfere?" Dennis cried silently. Suille glared at Hermione with contempt in his eyes.

By then a few of the slaves had gathered around. Parvati, Ginny and Michael were among them. They were worried stiff for Hermione, but what could they do? Ginny silently said a prayer to the heavens. Small streams of tears made their way down her face. Michael put a brotherly arm around her, while Parvati squeezed her arm.

"You think you are a brave little heroine, don't you? Let's see how brave you really are…. CRUCIO"

Every nerve in Hermione's body was on fire, not the warm and comforting fire but fire similar to the fire that would burn everything, fire that had no end. Tears were now flowing down her pretty face. She clamped her mouth shut not wanting to give the dirty death eater the satisfaction of seeing her scream out in pain. She was a Gryffindor through and through, but she was a human being as well… she couldn't take it anymore. She finally cried out in pain and anguish.

Suille smirked and lifted the curse, taking his own sweet time while doing it. He then walked towards her and nudged her face with his foot. Hermione looked at him with pure malice in her eyes. He sneered, "So mudblood, did that teach you to respect people who are better than you?" at this point he turned to those standing around, "I don't understand why they've allowed scum like you to live. Guess we do need the dirty ones to do the dirty works. Pity we've to look at these filthy faces everyday!"

Hermione glared at him, but remained silent not for fear of her death, but for fear of the death of her cause. She knew her cause would not be served if she pulled stunts like that, but sometimes she was as reckless as Harry and couldn't help herself. She was frustrated with everything she saw around her. She couldn't stomach the anguish that small children went through, just because they were unlucky enough to have some magic blood in them. She vowed she'll one day avenge the death of her best friends, friends and parents.

He lazily pointed his wand and muttered, "Finite" She was now free to stand. Though it took her a lot to just to pick herself up from the ground. She managed to finally stand.

Suille turned to Dennis and Hermione. "Well, I had fun today torturing you two muddys…." Suille said pointing to Hermione and Dennis while deriding them. "It would give me more pleasure to finish you off but, I've to have my _fun_ tomorrow as well."

He pointed his wand at Hermione's right shoulder. "Sectumsepra" Hermione couldn't breath. She felt like her shoulders were sliced with sharp blades. Deep gashes were forming on her shoulder. Blood was seeping out. She screamed out in utter pain. She clutched her shoulder. She shook her head to clear away the panic. The front of her already torn and tattered clothes were slowly drenching in pure Gryffindor-red blood.

Suille laughed and walked away to the 'superiors only' part of the camp. On his way he said aloud, "That should teach you filthy, undeserving people to disrespect others who are above you."

The moment Suille was gone; all the others rushed towards Hermione.

Dennis was the closest and the first to reach her. She was turning pale with the loss of blood. He pulled out his torn shirt was held it to her shoulder and applied gentle pressure to stop the bleeding. Soon Ginny, Parvati and Michael were on their knees beside Hermione.

"Dittany…" mumbled Hermione feebly. The others could not hear what she was trying to say. Michael leaned closer and Hermione repeated herself again though it cost her a lot.

"Parvati give me the dittany, stat," he said, urgency looming his voice. Parvati quickly retrieved the small bottle of dittany which had been slinked from the potions store room at Hogwarts on one of the days they were assigned to clean the Hogwarts dungeons. She handed it over to Michael with trembling hands.

Ginny now had tears freely falling. She held Hermione close to herself and squeezed her other shoulder in a reassuring, sisterly manner. Hermione looked up at her and gave a watery smile. Hermione was what was left of her family. She knew her mother and Ron had died during the battle, but she didn't know anything about the rest of her family. It was only the ministry who actually knew who was alive and hiding and who wasn't. Hermione was like a sister to her. She couldn't bear seeing her hurt.

Michael fumbled with the cork of the bottle and finally pulled it of. He quickly pulled of his shirt like Dennis and using the cleanest part of it, dabbed dittany onto Hermione's right shoulders. The cuts slowly healed themselves leaving a faint scar that wasn't noticed unless someone touched the spot.

Hermione slowly sat up, weak with the blood loss, thankful that she had once overheard Snape say that dittany should be applied straight away after a Sectumsempra to replenish a little of the lost blood and to heal the wounds. She blinked a couple of times and noticed that there was an acute pressure being applied on her left shoulder. She looked up and saw Ginny crying a river. Hermione embraced Ginny to let her know that she was alright. She then hugged Michael and Parvati and thanked them. Then she turned to Dennis, who was still crying, and gave him a sisterly bear hug. She understood how much Dennis missed his brother.

The crowd cleared seeing that Hermione was going to be alright.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Michael demanded. Hermione was quite embarrassed that she had been acting without thinking unlike her usual self. Thanks to the war she wasn't much of her usual self anymore.

But, no matter what she had to defend herself. So she said defiantly, "I couldn't help myself. Yes, Michael, I know it was stupid but it was immensely satisfying to watch that death eater crap when his house mascot, albeit a gentle one, was about to choke him to death", she noticed that Michael was about to protest further and quickly added, "I would NOT have lived it down if I had just let the opportunity slip through my fingers, plus he was torturing Dennis. How could I just stand there and watch?"

"Don't try to convince me that what you did was the right thing. You could've simply distracted Suille and gotten Dennis from there and ran into the forest. Or you could've thrown that snake at him and simply run away from there." He closed his eyes for a second and when he opened them there was amusement in them. "No matter what I've to give it to you for having thrown that harmless snake at him. I wish that it had not been harmless. Then, it could have bitten that scum. Hmm… it was a brave thing to do, but stupid as well" he said as he hugged Hermione.

"We second that", chorused Parvati and Ginny.

Hermione nodded and pulled away from Michael and stood with her arm slung comfortingly over Dennis. She knew he needed her.

"I know you want your revenge 'mione," Ginny said, "but now isn't the time. Their time will come. We will make them pay for every drop of good blood that had been shed before, during and after the war. For both wizard and muggle blood. And to achieve this you need to be patient. You need to keep that head on your shoulders and not lose it all together. We need that amazing, and unerring brain of yours. We need strategy and you can't run around doing something rash and destroy our chances at revenge."

Parvati nodded her head, completely agreeing with Ginny. She and Hermione may not have been close at Hogwarts, but after the war they had grown to trust each other. She said, "Yes, we'll get, if not, extract, our revenge. Revenge for everything – slavery, death of loved ones and for the general and the greater good." She saw Hermione shake her head, and went on with a slight increase in her voice, "no you don't! We know you miss Harry, Ron, your parents and a whole lot of our people. For their sakes pull yourself together."

At the mention of Harry and Ron, Hermione's eyes shone with tears. But she did not let them flow down her cheeks. She didn't cry. As soon as the tears sprang to her eyes they disappeared and her eyes now shone with a determination that would have put even the greatest of men to shame. At this Michael, Ginny and Parvati exchanged looks. They knew that Hermione was now going to dedicate her life full and fully to their cause, though they knew she had always for freedom and revenge. Now they knew even if they all couldn't survive long, Hermione would get her revenge. They knew she would not die trying. They knew she would make death wait with folded arms at her doorstep until she completed what she set out to do.

Hermione was looking off into the distance, the wheels spinning furiously in her brain. She was startled out of her thinking when the other four hugged her. She smiled and joined in the group hug.

They started towards the camp, Hermione said, "I need a few hours. Get everyone and meet me after dinner at our hut," she said pointing to Ginny, Parvati and herself.

She turned towards the forest instead of the camp and started to move but turned around at the sound of Ginny's voice.

"Where are you going?" demanded Ginny with concern in her eyes. Michael looked at her curiously. Parvati simply looked on the exchange.

"Nowhere, I just need to be on my own for the some time." Hermione said.

"I'll come with you," offered Michael.

"No, plus the whole point of being alone is to have NO ONE else around. Don't worry, I'll be safe." She said tightly. Her voice did not book place for any sort of argument.

She turned back to the forest and walked straight ahead for about five minutes. She then looked all around herself carefully making sure no one was following her. She walked quickly with the ease and covertness of a cat. She then turned to her right and walked a few feet and turned north and walked up to a baby willow tree. From there she turned north east and walked on, after a few turns here and there she reached her destination.

There was the little lake deep in the forest that Harry, Ron and she had found one day while looking for a place to hide during the war. There was a cave; about 15 minutes walk away from the lake. The place was secure, with the most complex of the security spells. Some of them where not even known to the wizarding world. They were spells Hermione had invented with a little help from Dumbledore. She was known as the brightest witch of all times for nothing. Too bad Voldemort underestimated her. But that had always worked to her advantage. And now she WILL work it to her advantage as much as possible. For once, she was glad that she had always been in the shadows of Harry, Ron and Dumbledore. Back then, she used to hate it, but now it was one of the things she was very glad of.

There were books of various genre in the cave – dark arts, defense against dark arts, transfiguration, charms, herbology, ancient runes, astronomy and even divination, and a book about prophesies. The collection here was larger than the Hogwarts library. There were many books from Greece, Italy, France, Germany, China and many other countries. There were also dictionaries for the various languages. The cave also had a few magical artifacts, some stolen, some bought, and some made by Dumbledore himself.

Now was the time to put all her brilliance, and brightness to useful work. She knew that the task ahead was not easy. She knew she would need all her wit and some more. They would need a better place to hide, as this hiding place was not VERY far from the camp. The place was secure, un-plottable, and no one could over hear them. To someone from outside, it would be a dirty garbage dumping area that had an unbearable stench.

She still had not told anyone about this place. She was the only surviving person who knew of this place. Now, after Harry's death she was the secret keeper. She would have to tell the others about the cave later. But only time will tell when that 'later' would come.

For now she had many things to think about, and mulling over whether or not to tell the others about this place was not one of them.

Author Notes: I hope you guys like this chapter. Please review. In the next chapter you'll know who those 'everyone' are. Actually I mentioned that the traitor was oliver wood in the first chapter. But, he is not the only one. There were 2 more. And there _might_ be one more. anyway, the next update is a couple of weeks away. Until then, bbye, and take care.

Love,

Azea!


	3. the phoenix!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the recognizable character.

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Author Notes: so guys the next chapter is up. Once again I would like to thank those who reviewed. Plus guys please do review. It really means a lot to me and is very encouraging for a writer.

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Hermione stayed in the cave for a couple of hours. Initially she was crying, thinking about the war and all those people she had lost, as she looked at the various books on the ground which were separated and labeled according to their subject, which of course had been done by Hermione, and the various magical objects that lined the shelf that was carved out of the rock by Harry with a little help from Ron. Then she pulled out a book from the section labeled 'transfiguration'. She decided she could do some light reading.

After half-an-hour she put the book away. Then she pulled out a couple of fresh parchments and a quill, from a sac lying around, and sat down on the hard, damp ground.

She tore the first parchment into two. On the first half she wrote down the names of all those who had died fighting for the light. On the other half she wrote the names of the dark wizard who had also died during the war.

On the other fresh parchment she wrote the names of all the death eaters. She then realized that the number of people who opposed Voldemort were far outnumbered by the ones who supported him. Then, she made a detailed plan of TDLR slave camp from what she knew. She also made a rough sketch of the Hogwarts grounds. She used her extensive memory for this. But she could not phantom what lay beyond the forbidden forest. She deduced that there were hills on the other side but she wasn't so sure. She knew that there were unicorns, threshals and centaurs, but other than that she did not know of what creatures lay in that forest.

She sat there thinking hard. There were still a couple more horcruxes left. Boy was she glad that Voldemort didn't know about the trio hunting down his horcruxes.

Hermione looked down at her battered old watch and realized that she had just an hour to be at the slave camp. She looked around the cave, scrutinizing every bit of it. As she stepped towards the entrance of the cave she remembered that Harry's, Ron's and Hermione's spare wands were kept in the back of the cave. As if by some force unknown to her, she started moving towards a small portable safe box placed in the far end of the cave.

With every step she took, her surroundings became darker and she suddenly started having apprehensions. She had always made sure that she was with either Ron or Harry every time she went to the back of the cave. A tear slid down her cheeks, if only they were still around...

But she a Gryffindor and a stubborn one at that. She stopped for a moment and took a long breath, calmed herself and moved ahead with grit. Soon she found that the safe was wedged between two rocks. She then opened the safe carefully, and pulled out her wand. Immediately there was a warm feeling tingling down her arm. She was sorely tempted to clean herself with the wand. But that would only raise doubts. And it will not do to give away this place.

It was then that she saw a sac lying in a corner near the safe. She quickly turned to it. She pulled out the contents of the sac and found loads of fresh parchments, quills, ink, a few maps of underground London, hogsmeade and a few places she couldn't figure out which place they represented. These were given to them by Dumbledore, though no explanation was given. Hermione had assumed that they were just given to them as precautions. Then she found an old and frayed parchment.

She pulled it out eagerly. It then hit her. Of course it was the marauders map! How could she have forgotten??

'_Whats wrong with me these days? I need to pull myself together. I cry when ever I get the opportunity. Stupid me. Come on Hermione, we've got a lot to do. No time to grieve, at least not now.'_ She thought.

She dug further into the sac and found a picture of her and her best friends laughing at the camera. It was taken a couple of months before the war. She held it close to her for a few moments; draining in all the peace she could possible get from the picture. She dropped it into the sac again and picked up the marauder's map. She then pointed the wand at the map and muttered, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

The map came to life with millions of tiny dots, with the name of the person they represented, gracing the halls of Hogwarts. She quickly scanned the grounds, and simply looked at the random dots moving around. The map would be of immense use in the near future. She muttered again, "mischief managed." The map became lifeless once again, and just looked like an old useless piece of parchment.

She pulled out a parchment from the pile and this time did some serious thinking before she put down the following:

_The phoenix!_

_I swear in earnest that I will help the lightside fight the shadows of the dark. I will NOT rely any of the information I know regarding the light side - its supporters, its objectives, its dealings and any other piece of information related to it – to anyone else who has not signed this agreement, which includes kith and kin._

_I will not do anything that will endanger The Phoenix and its cause(s). I will stand by the members and fight shoulder to shoulder with them if need be._

She pointed her wand at this parchment and muttered an assortment of spells. Anyone, other than those who signed on it can not read the matter on the parchment. It would just be a useless piece of parchment. She also muttered a few of the spells she had created. 'Nihilum **Evidens'. Followed by 'Ne Deprehensio', which was to make sure that previous magic could not be detected anywhere on the parchment.**

**These spells were followed by many more. She knew she was being paranoid. But it was better to be paranoid than to be over confident in anything or anybody for that matter. All she knew was that none who sign on the parchment could ever betray her. The phoenix and data about it will be taken to the grave by all those who knew about it!**

Quite pleased with herself, she quickly but reluctantly replaced the wand into the safe along with the map. She tucked the parchment and the quill well into her clothes. And walked towards the entrance of the cave. Once outside she pushed a rock to cover the entrance of the cave although it was unnecessary. Now she had to get to the camp as soon as possible. She then ran in the general direction of the lake. From there she sprinted to the place where she had left Ginny, Michael and Parvati.

She slowed down to a trot and turned to her right and walked for about five minutes. She took a deep shuddering breath. She picked up a few tree barks lying around and stuffed it into her clothes as well. She carefully shut her mind to any unwelcome probing. She schooled her face to look pained, hurt and broken. She walked slowly to the entrance of the camp. When she was about 10 feet from the gates, she feigned a limp and pretended to drag her self with great difficulty.

As she passed through the gates she noticed the two guards look at her suspiciously. One of them was tall and lean, the other was had an average height and weight and slightly older than the taller one.

The taller of the two halted her, "Where have you been? Don't you know that you were supposed to be here 15 minutes ago? Or is it that difficult for you lot to remember such simple things?"

Hermione looked at him with what she hoped was a scared face and stammered purposefully, "I… I d-didn't rea-realise the t-t-time. I-I'll make su-sure to be he-here on time from no-now-on." Ah! She could be a damned good actress if the situation called for it.

And the guards did not need to know of that minute detail. They scrutinized her face carefully. She was glad she had cried back in the cave. She knew that her tears were now dry but she also knew that they had left clear tracks on her dirtied face.

"What do you have on you?" barked the older one.

Hermione quickly pulled out the tree barks from her clothes. But left a few, along with the quill and parchment in her clothes.

"Why are you carrying them around?"

She forced her lips to tremble as she replied, stammering once again, "I-it is an m-mug-muggle belief, keeping tree ba-barks in your cl-clothes is a way to keep oneself happy. My m-mom told so." She said, looking the guard in the eye. She had learnt ages ago that it was far more convincing when you lied looking straight in the person's eye.

The guards gave a short bark of laughter. One of them pointed his wand at her and said, "Crucio". She was loath to cry out. She knew she could've easily stood up and laughed at the weakness of the curse. Maybe he was a new recruit. Anyway, she pretended to scream out and forced tears to stream out of her eyes.

The guard laughed, "I wonder if the bark kept you happy through that!"

Hermione didn't say anything, she badly wanted to do something rash, but she contained herself determinedly.

The one who had questioned and unnecessarily crucio-ed her tried to probe into her mind. Instead of blocking him completely, she led him through a maze to a fake scene in which she was crucio-ed by Suille; she carefully left out Dennis, the others, the sectumsempra cure, dittany and all those things that the guards had no business knowing. Then she showed the guards of the scene of sitting on a stone in the forest, not far from the gates, crying her heart out and then stuffing her clothes with barks.

Once the guards saw this they were satisfied. Though the taller tried to delve further, the older one said, "Come on sonny, we know she wasn't up to anything. Plus what use is reading such an impure, worthless book?"

The other looked like he wanted to probe more but he let it go. Hermione might've bristled at the older guard's remark, at any other time, but now she was more than just glad!

She took a couple of quick steps towards the poor excuse of a hut in which the slaves were supposed to live. She felt the guards staring at her back. She suddenly stopped still. Without turning back she quickly pretended to moan out in pain and then she slowly dragged herself to the shack where she and the other girls stayed. On the way she berated herself for being so careless.

Finally she reached the hut, walked in and quickly moved towards the far end of the hut. She sat down exhausted.

Ginny and Parvati looked at her curiously. "What?" Hermione asked.

"Is your leg really hurt?" Ginny asked.

"No, and the guards need not know that." Hermione replied. The other girls grinned at this.

"I – we saw them trying legimency on you," Parvati stated.

"I just fed him with some rubbish about me crying my eyes out."

"Where have you been?"

"Oh! Just wandered into the forest" Hermione answered convincingly, well at least convincing enough for Parvati. Ginny gave her a funny look, but did not press the matter any further.

"The others will be here after dinner." Ginny said, "Michael said he'll inform the guys, we informed the gals." She said pointing to herself and Parvati.

Hermione nodded thoughtfully but remained silent.

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Dinner at the slave camp went on without any major incident. After dinner the girls had to clean the dishes and the guys had to clean the tables and clean the already clean grounds. While doing the dishes Michael passed her and whispered, "Its not possible to meet at your hut. How about the store room behind your hut? I know it is not safe, but it is the best we can do for now. Shtrawog"

Hermione nodded, but didn't look very positive about it. "Be discreet, and do not come in more than twos." She cautioned.

Michael nodded looking elsewhere. He walked off in the direction of the middle of the ground where Justin Finch-Fletcheley was working with Neville Longbottom. He quickly informed them of the plans and went on to tell the others.

After all the chores, the slaves went to their respective huts. As the clock struck 11 o' clock, 10 of the slaves woke up. Hermione made her way to the back of the hut towards the store room, which was actually a place where they brought the chopped logs. It was quite dark but it gave a lot of places to hide. It also had a trap door, which Seamus and Michael had discovered in the third week after they were brought to the slave camp.

Soon, after a couple of minutes, Hermione went to stand by the door and opened it when Ginny and Parvati arrived looking quite spent. They muttered the password "shtrawog". They were followed by Justin and Hannah Abbot. Who were also admitted after they recited the password. Next were Dean Thomas and Nancy Hustler, who was in Ginny's year from Ravenclaw, followed by Seamus. The rear was brought by Michael and Neville.

Neville quickly moved forward to hug Hermione. Which Hermione gratefully returned. "I heard you got into trouble with Suille. Are you alright?" he asked with a brotherly concern in his voice.

Hermione smiled, not realizing that it was dark and it did not matter whether she smiled or grimaced, and said, "Yeah I'm okay Neville. Don't worry."

"Okay guys lets get to business. But, I'll need you to sign here in this parchment before we start anything." She pulled up the quill and the parchment in which she had drawn the agreement. After all, she could not afford to have any more traitors.

The others except Ginny and Neville looked at her warily. They knew what had happened to Cho Chang's best friend when she had tried to betray the Dumbledore's Army. Only this time the curse that was used previously would be a joke compared to this.

But no one said anything as the parchment was read out by Hermione and signed by all the others. There was a tense silence in the air. After everyone signed Hermione pocketed the parchment and handed the quill to Justin, who took it confused.

"Keep it with you; if they find it with me along with the parchment, I'm done for." Hermione said.

"Oh! Alright." He pocketed the quill.

Hermione started off in her usual bossy voice with more excitement in her voice than she felt. "First, when are your Hogwarts shifts?"

"Nancy and I have it on Mondays mornings and Fridays" said Ginny.

"We- Neville, Hannah and I have it on the Saturdays and Thursdays." Said Justin.

"Michael, Dean and Parvati have it on Tuesdays and Sundays, I believe?" Hermione asked.

"Yes" came three murmured answers.

"And that leaves us - Seamus and I are on Wednesdays and Monday evenings."

At Seamus murmur of assent she continued, "Gather as much information as you can WITHOUT giving yourself away. I want all of you to bear in mind that the information, no matter how valuable it is to our cause, is completely worthless if you get caught in the process of finding it. We will need to start collecting necessary potions for future use. Though, I must warn you not to take anything from Hogwarts when you are there, yet. I have to work out what potions we will need. I want all of you to think of all the useful potions that might be required."

"Okay, but don't you think, we should start procuring all the necessary stuff, as soon as possible," Parvati asked.

"Yes, but after giving a thought to what all are necessary and what all are not. Plus where will we store all the stuff? We need to think of a place to safeguard it. Where no one will think to look. Someplace charmed not to allow people other than us."

"How about somewhere in the forest? We can burry it somewhere and mark it for future" Nancy quipped. Nancy was a nice, witty girl but she had her annoying moments.

Hermione shook her head. She did not understand how Nancy could so nonchalantly suggest a place that could easily be found by the others. Wasn't she supposed to be in Ravenclaw? God help her! Ginny laid a warning hand on her shoulder to remind her to get her irritation in check. Hermione was grateful to her. "No, it will be simply foolish to place it some where so noticeable. It won't take them much time to track the place down, plus everyone has access to the forest around here."

Nancy looked a bit put out, but kept her peace. She admired Hermione, but she wanted to contribute too.

"How about someplace a little far away from the lake in the forest? None goes there. I'm sure there will be someplace there." Michael intoned pointedly looking at Hermione.

"I told you, already. It is simply not secure enough. I agree that it is not somewhere the death eaters from here go. But we need a place far, far away from here." She said slightly exasperated. "We will think of some place then. Until then no procuring the materials." She felt uncomfortable with Michael pressing the matter. She knew he already suspected something. Suspecting each other was something they had to avoid at all costs. But she knew that mutual trust and understanding will take some more time. "Keep your eyes and ears open. If you get a chance to read the headlines of the daily prophet, go for it. But you should not be caught dead with the paper in your hands. And do not bring it to the camp. We need to know whats going on outside. We need to know who survived and who hasn't."

"Okay stay safe. We'll find a way to contact each other." Seamus said.

"Hey! Hermione, what about those coins we had for D.A? They were amazing and useful. Can you manage to make some again?" Neville said unexpectedly, Dean nodded.

"Yes, but it'll take some time too. Until then guard you secrets safely." Hermione warned.

"I think we should get going." Hannah said speaking for the first time since the meeting commenced.

"Yeah I think we should get to bed. That's it guys, for now." Hermione said.

They all hugged each other and left one by one. Michael, Ginny, Seamus and Hermione were the last one left. Michael and Ginny left together.

Seamus turned to Hermione, and pulled her to him and hugged her fiercely. "Hermione I know I can never be what Harry and Ron were to you, but Dean and I are always here for you. Don't hesitate to ask for any sort of help. Don't worry, we all will share the work. We will make it. We will have a bright future. We will fight for it if it is the last thing we do. Don't worry your pretty head over it." Seamus said softly.

Hermione smiled at him gratefully with tears shining in her eyes. She hugged him back. "Thanks Seamus. You'll never know what this means to me. Thanks for being there. Thanks for the support, thanks for everything."

Seamus smiled at her with warmth in his eyes. He bent his head and kissed her cheeks. "Well, good night."

"'Night"

With a nod Seamus walked out to his hut.

Hermione made sure that she had the parchment safe. She walked to the door and stood there looking out into the dark. She thought of Harry and Ron, and silently wished them a good night hoping they could hear her all the way from heaven.

She briskly stepped into the dark. And walked towards her hut. As she reached it. She felt a human presence. She could distinctly hear footsteps. She deduced that the foot steps were at least a 25 feet away from her. She tumbled over a stone on the way and went crashing down to the ground. The footsteps stopped abruptly. She heard shuffling of feet. She quickly stood up and tried to silence her uneven breathing.

She waited there for a few seconds. A voice, Suille's voice, broke the silence of the night, "who is there?" this felt like déjà vu. Coming to her senses, she realized she didn't want to be caught with the 'homenum revelio' again. She made haste and silently ran the few steps to her door and pushed open the door and closed it behind her as silently as possible and dove straight for her corner which had a bed made of hay.

Suille, mean while, looked around in suspicion and walked off assuming it was probably a cat or something.

Hermione heard his footsteps fall away. She closed her eyes. It started to rain. There was thunder, lightning and heavy down pour. Water seeped into their hut. But Hermione sighed, comforted by the rain, thunder and lightening. The weather outside reflected her torrent of a soul. She fell into a fistful sleep, something nagging in the back of her mind.

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Author Notes: Hey guys! I hope you like the chapter. I hardly had any reviews for the previous chapters. Please do review. And I really want to know what you think of the story so far. I welcome criticism. I would love to know how I can improve on my writing and narration.

Those two spells used by Hermione in the cave were invented by me. Its basically direct Latin.

The next chapter has Draco-blindingly hot- Malfoy's entrance!!! Look out for the next chapter. It will be up as soon as I can post it. It'll take a couple of days or something.

Love,

Azea!


	4. an encounter

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the recognizable characters.

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Author Notes: well this is the fourth chap….. Read on…

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Hermione woke up from a fitful sleep as the very first rays of the sun poured into the hut on a warm Monday morning. She sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

"Morning girls," Hermione said as she saw Ginny and Parvati stirring.

"'Morning," chorused the other two.

"Ginny you'll be off to Hogwarts today, right?"

"Yeah. What about you girls?"

"I've to clean the grounds of this god awful place." Parvati said as she gut up from her hay-bed.

"And I've to collect logs and chop them up for the fireplaces of apparent _pure-_bloods," Hermione answered. "Alright Ginny, I want you to stay safe but collect info at the same time too. As far as possible try to stick together with Nancy."

Ginny nodded. Hermione got up and walked out.

"'Morning," she said as she walked by Seamus and Neville already on their duty of cleaning the grounds.

"Good morning to you too." They mumbled sleepily.

Hermione set off towards the forest with a group of 12 other slaves. Dennis walked alongside her. "So are you okay from yesterday, Dennis?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, as okay as it can get. The bloody git used the cruciatus on me and it was a bit too painful for me to be okay. But other than that I'm perfectly alright. What about you?"

"I'm okay." She and the two walked in silence as she looked into the forest hoping she would get to stray away from the group for an hour at least so she could go to her cave again. She did not know if it was just her or if someone was watching them closely.

At once she was high on alert. She looked around carefully and saw a death eater walking along side the group to make sure none of them did not stray away. But something told her that it wasn't him, it was someone else, someone familiar.

All her senses were working with thrice as much efficiency as they normally would. She looked around trying to think of some way to cause a distraction. That was when she noticed Michael and Hannah standing around near a log trying to haul it towards the camp all on their own.

Hermione walked away from the group and moved towards them as discreetly as possible by her. But unfortunately, the death eater saw her move. "Where do you think you are going, filth?" he demanded.

"Trying to help them" Hermione said trying to look innocent.

"There is no need for that, now get back to where you were."

"Hermione, do you want to get away temporarily?" Dennis whispered to her.

Hermione, now sulking as she walked with Dennis again, looked up sharply. "Yes, actually I'm looking for a diversion. I need to be off for an hour."

"Maybe I can cause a distraction. You need to get yourself away in the mean time. Is that okay with you?"

"I'm not so sure, Dennis. But what do you have on your mind?"

"What if I fake a seizure or simply faint or something?"

"Well that might just work. But how long can you stall with that?" Hermione looked around at Hannah and willed her to look at her. As if by some miracle Hannah looked up and their eyes met.

Hermione concentrated desperately and solely on Hannah trying to convey to her that she needed a distraction. Finally she could do it.

'_I need a distraction. Dennis said he would pretend to faint or something. But I need someone to prolong it at least by an hour.' _ Hermione was jubilant that she could do legimency.

At first Hannah looked surprised. But quickly recovered and nodded. She quickly relayed the message to Michael as well. He looked thoughtfully at Hermione.

Michael had noticed that the death eater with Hermione's group was scared of Suille. Apparently he was the in charge there. Well it paid to be observant at times.

He quickly walked up to the death eater and said, "Master Suille requires these logs immediately, and some more, but since it is just the two of us, we need help to take it to the camp as soon as possible. Can we use two of the strongest from there so we can deliver this to him soon?"

The death eater looked unconvinced.

"Well if you mind it so much its okay. I'll go back to the camp and get two more slaves from there. But you see, the problem in that is if I see Suille there and I've still not gotten the logs there…. I'll have to tell him you didn't let me borrow two people..." he trailed off pretending to be scared and uncertain.

The death eater still looked like he didn't want to lend anyone but accepted grudgingly. He pointed at Hermione and Dennis, "go help those two weaklings." The he muttered to himself, "I don't see any sense in anything that Suille says. Well, wait till I get to his position."

Hermione had noted time and again that there was restlessness among the death eaters. They were so power hungry that they simply refused to trust each others. They were always plotting each others demise. There she noticed the weakness in the band Voldemort had woven.

She could still feel the presence.

She looked at the death eater and said patronizingly, "I'll get back to _our_ group as soon as I'm done with that job." She said without being too obvious. He looked at her with sharp eyes. But she was ready. She went on, "you know it's better as a group and with someone powerful around…" she let her voice fade off, she felt like gagging at that thought.

The death eater looked slightly flattered with this. Though he reprimanded her, "shut up and get on with the work assigned to you." She nodded like a good little lamp, pleased the death eater moved on.

"Thanks guys. But now how do I get away from here?" she asked in a low voice.

"You can just go though that path. We'll take care of the rest." Hannah told her.

"Okay. But what if you guys got into trouble?" she asked biting her lower lip.

"Don't worry about us. We'll make sure that your group doesn't meet up with us. Plus we do need some extra help and Dennis here and do that. If we don't meet up with that death eater you sucked up to, no one will know you were away. But be careful." Michael said.

Hermione nodded and took of in the direction of the path. She felt the presence closer. She quickly ran to the lake though the thickest part of the forest. From there she ran off to the cave. Now, she felt the presence very close to her.

She felt apprehensions. What if this was someone who wanted to attack her? Had she just fooled herself into believing that this invisible person was someone she knew? There was just one way to find out.

"Who is there?" she asked nervously. When she got no reply, she repeated the question again. Now she felt stupid for talking to the air around her. She shook her head spun around. That's when she saw long white hair glinting in the sun. She gasped, she was right all along, there was someone there. But who?

The person, finally, pulled off the invisibility cloak. He was an old man with dirty glasses on his nose that almost hid his intelligent eyes. He had an unmistakable aura of familiarity about him. Hermione looked gobsmacked for a couple of minutes, stunned at the sudden appearance of Aberforth Dumbledore!

Hermione still looked at him suspiciously. "Reveal yourself." She demanded cautiously.

"I, Aberforth Dumbledore, was the brother of Albus Dumbledore and Ariana, who died in the cross fire of spells, hexes and curses during the duel between me, my brother and Grinderwald. I also was the barman of Hogshead. And you, in your fifth year at Hogwarts, held a secret meeting for the Dumbledore's Army in my bar."

Hermione blinked at him for a couple of minutes, unsure of what to do, and what to believe. Then all of a sudden she flew towards him to give him a hug.

"Mr. Dumbledore is that really you or am I seeing things?" she asked wondering if she was okay in her head.

"Aberforth please. Yes Hermione, it's really me." He said chuckling.

"I did not expect to see you here, Mr. Dumble- Aberforth. I did not expect to see you, period." She squealed happily.

He simply smiled at her and questioned, "Is there somewhere more secretive?"

"Yes, come along, there is a cave near by, I'm the secret keeper." She took him to the cave and the two walked in.

"It's quite a comfortable place. How did you chance upon it?"

"Harry, Ron and I stayed here a few weeks before the war. How are you? Are you on the run? Of course you are; what do you know about the others? Where are you hiding?"

"Whoa, slow down... answering your questions… I'm fine, yes, I'm on the run as you answered that question yourself, as for what I know of the others – I'll get to it later, and I don't want to give away my hiding place." He noticed that Hermione's face had fallen. He added, "It's just a precaution, if you don't know where it is, it won't be forced out of you."

He continued looking around, inspecting the cave, "the Weasleys –Arthur and those impish twins are in hiding, so are bill, fleur and their daughter, molly are at the shell cottage, Lupin and his son Teddy are staying with Andromeda Tonks at her place, Alicia and Dedalus Diggle are also on the run, their location changes every few days."

"How have you been?" he asked kindly, his eyes trained on her.

"I'm fine. Maybe not as happy, but I'm fine." Hermione answered truthfully.

"Hmm... and what have you been up to?" he asked looking peering into her eyes.

Hermione blushed, "who said I'm up to anything at all?"

"Ha! You are Hermione granger, best friend of Harry potter and Ronald Weasley you surely want to avenge their deaths?"

"Yeah, nothing would please me more than that."

"How do you plan on doing it?"

"I don't know, I've collected a few people, 'the phoenix!' we are scouring for outside news, in a few days we, I'm planning to sneak essential potions and other stuff from Hogwarts."

Dumbledore nodded thoughtfully. "That is not enough Hermione."

"Yes, I'm aware of that, but it was only a few days back that I could finally pull myself together." She said unabashedly. "We'll need all the help we can from you guys."

"I'm acutely aware of that. We are all there for you. We need to find out a way to keep in contact with each other. The death eaters are actively searching for us. So it will be a little difficult for us…" he trailed off.

"I think I can help there. But only one of you lot." Hermione said an idea forming in her mind, but she still was unsure of it.

"Out with it, Ms. Granger"

"Maybe I can pretend that one of you died and cry about it in the presence of a death eater."

"What if they fed you veritaserum?"

"Now that you mention it. I'm not sure."

Aberforth looked at Hermione with glinting eyes. "Are you a witch Hermione?"

Hermione head snapped up in confusion and she nodded still processing the question, "yeah, but what has anything to do with the situation at hand?" she asked.

"Can you do magic?"

"Assuming I'm a witch, I should be able to do magic?"

"I don't assume you're a witch, Hermione, I know you are a witch" Aberforth said kindly. "Do you have a wand with you?"

"Yes, infact it is in a safe in this very cave. Hang, on I'll get it." She made to move to the back of the cave to retrieve the wand when Aberforth stopped her.

"Let it remain where it is." he said. "I'm sure you're not allowed wands into the camp. They can be detected. But otherwise can you do magic?"

Hermione could not understand where this was taking them, but decided to humor the wizard in front of her. "'otherwise can you do magic' don't you need a wand to channel and control your magic?"

"Yes, but what about the times when children below 11 tend to do accidental magic?"

"Well, they are accidental magic isn't it?" Hermione was now on the verge of concluding that Dumbledore had officially lost his marbles.

"Yes, they are accidental magic, but there can be incidental magic as well, did you ever considered that?" he asked, his eyes twinkling as he looked at Hermione.

Suddenly something dawned on her. Ah! Yes the proverbial light bulb! She immediately became excited, "you mean to ask if I can do wandless magic. Wow that is difficult to trace... no priori incantatum... no wand detection" At this she faltered, "but…,"she said biting her lower lips, "I can't really do wandless magic"

Aberforth Dumbledore smiled indulgently at her, "but I heard you were an excellent student, Ms. Granger. I'm sure you can learn it. Do you have the books that are required?" he asked giving the heaps and heaps on books a cursory glance.

Hermione nodded, "I do have two books on wandless magic. But for some reason, I've not read it yet." She said.

At this Dumbledore pulled an old and worn out book from his cloak and gave it to her, "here, this will be extremely useful."

Hermione smiled gratefully at her former headmaster's brother, "thank you."

"You are welcome, plus when you are learning, do not experiment it in the presence of others, I prefer that this is kept completely under the wraps, not even the members of 'the phoenix!' should know about it."

Hermione nodded. "Okay."

"It is not easy; it needs a lot of hard work, concentration and brains. And I believe you can do it."

Hermione blushed at the compliment. "Yeah, I'll give it my best."

"Okay, my work here is complete; I need to be on my way. Do not try to contact me. No matter what the emergency. I'll contact you, not any time sooner, but one of us will contact you. Be safe." He started walking to the entrance of the cave.

"You too professor, give the others my love, and professor–"

"Yes?" he asked turning around.

"I just wanted to know. I've been feeling weird these days; I can hear foot steps 20-25 feet away, I also noticed that my eye sight has become... uh...um better. Do you know why or at least how?"

"That Ms. Granger is for the future to unfold. See you as soon as possible. Take care." Hermione moved towards him and hugged him again. With that he walked out into the sunlight outside the cave and disappeared. Hermione looked at the book clutched tightly in her hands.

She noticed something shiny by the entrance of the cave; she walked over and fingered the cloak. She realized that it was Harry's invisibility cloak! So Dumbledore had it?! But why didn't he take it back with him? He didn't even seem to need it.

'_Of course, he is powerful enough to use a disillusionment charm, he probably left it for my use'_ she thought sending a silent thanks to whoever was up there and liked her.

She tucked the cloak into her dress. And looked at the book once again with longing, she was itching to read the book then and there, but if she didn't get back, Michael, Hannah and Dennis will end up in trouble.

Finally she placed the book on the pile of transfiguration books and whirled around and ran out of the cave. For the second time in hours she found herself running to the clearing where she had left Ginny and the rest yesterday.

Once she reached there, she pretended to pick up dry twigs, once her arms were full of them, she proceeded to move towards the camp, on reaching there she noticed Michael and others a few feet inside the camp. She caught Hannah's eyes for the second time that day and gave a meaningful look.

"Come on Granger, get the dry twigs in here quick" Hannah shouted across. At the sudden shout from the generally quiet Hannah, Michael and Dennis dropped the log they were carrying in surprise, looking around they caught sight of Hermione, and quickly resumed their work with no indication of what had transpired. Hermione joined them quickly.

"Where were you? We were getting worried." Michael said.

"I'm here aren't I? Don't worry about me. Thanks guys." She said meaning every letter of the word 'thanks'. The others nodded their welcomes. "Common lets get this stuff inside before they start doubting anything." She said expertly squirting around the question of where she had been.

Michael looked unconvinced, again. But he let it go, he trusted Hermione.

They were finally done with the logs.

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They had lunch and she was waiting to meet Seamus, so they could go to Hogwarts, for it was their slot there.

She saw Seamus hurrying towards her looking murderous. She was wondering what was up when he halted in front of her and announced, "Guess who is here?"

Hermione got sight of a platinum blond head about 35 feet ahead of them, it was too far away even for her improved sight.

"The albino ferret himself," Seamus revealed.

Hermione didn't know whether she went white with dread or red with anger.

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Author Notes: hi guys! How did you like it?

Foot prints are left on the beach for the sea to wash them; reviews are left for the author to treasure. So please do review.

Can you guys guess the other two betrayers, I mentioned in the 'author notes' of the second chapter? See if you get it right, plus you can only guess once.

I know I said that this chap will have Draco's entry into the story. But the chapter was already long enough.

Take care,

Azea!


	5. the visit

Disclaimer: just the usual, but I better explicitly say it again; I do not own any of the recognizable characters.

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Author Notes: I am so sorry for updating after a long time… I never got around to wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year… so I'll do it now… "Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!"

well here is the fifth chapter.

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Hermione groaned, "What does the ferret want?"

"How should I know?" Seamus said, "Though I would give anything to wring that jerk's neck," he spat bitterly. After all Draco Malfoy had made it his mission in life to make the Gryffindors' life miserable.

Hermione narrowed her eyes at Draco. "Come on Seamus, let's go to Hogwarts and see what we can do."

"Yeah, let's get going." They walked together towards the group of slave who were to leave for their round of cleaning the Hogwarts corridors.

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Draco Malfoy walked to the 'superiors only part' of the TDLR slave camp. To any onlooker it was obvious that he held a lot of power in the Dark Lord's reign. His eyes were an unforgiving grey that held deep and dark secrets that were best left unearthed. He had aided the dark side during the battle and had risen high in the ranks of death eaters.

All the other death eaters feared and respected him. No one dared to do anything to antagonize him, after all everyone loved his life, death eater or not. He now worked in the ministry, and also managed the Malfoy Firm since his father passed away.

As Draco walked in through the gates, the guards at the entrance bowed to him. He casually nodded to them as he walked into Suille's office.

"Ah! It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Malfoy." Suille greeted, standing up from his desk to shake hands with Draco. "How is your mother?"

"Yes, pleasure indeed and mother is fine," said Draco. "I need a few slaves. Can you provide that?"

"Of course, Mr. Malfoy." Suille bowed.

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Hermione and Seamus joined the crowd waiting to leave for Hogwarts. But as the group reached the gates, the guards shouted, "Halt! You're shift has been cancelled. Now get back, you lot. And wait for further orders."

Hermione looked at Seamus questioningly. To which Seamus just shook his in negative. "I'm with you, ain't I? I've no idea.."

Together they walked towards Hermione's hut. Ginny came running towards them, the others hot on her heels moving towards the duo.

Panting, Ginny said, "Do you know who is here? And why?"

Seamus replied, "Whoa, calm down! Yes, we know who is here – you are talking about Malfoy, right? And as for why he is here, we've no idea."

Hermione added, "We were on our way to Hogwarts and the guards told us no Hogwarts today for anyone… I wonder why that is. Since when did the death eaters start caring?"

"That's preposterous; of course the death eaters simply don't care." Nancy informed them unnecessarily. She always seemed to be bubbly. Hermione really liked it, but sometimes it got on her nerves.

"It seems like the ferret needs new slaves, as if torturing the elves aren't enough." Ginny said as though there was no interruption..

Michael looked around carefully and said, "He will try to provoke us, you especially Hermione," he nodded to her, "but don't let him see your emotions, stay away from him, if possible."

Neville nodded, Parvati looked a little sick and was being supported by Dean. Hannah looked away into the horizon. Dennis was fidgeting nervously, and Justin was keeping a sharp lookout for signs of trouble.

One of the guards approached and informed all the slaves huddled there, "Mr. Malfoy needs a couple of slaves, now get yourselves into lines of three, so the kind sir can have his choice, though there is nothing to choose form, all of you are the same - scum."

"'kind sir' my ass," muttered Dean.

The phoenix! Arranged themselves in threes such that they were all close by. Dennis was standing before Hermione.

Draco Malfoy walked regally towards the slaves. Hermione's face shone with an unhealthy amount of hatred. Michael shot her a look of warning, immediately Hermione contorted her face to remain blank, no hatred and no emotion.

Draco walked from person to person, carefully observing each one's face and occasionally spitting into someone's if he realized that they were from Hogwarts and that he had hated them for the simple reason that they were muggleborns or because they simply didn't support his pathetic 'purebloods rule' theory.

As he reached Ginny he smirked, "what happened to your fat mother, weasel-bee? Gone the same way as the rest of your family? Well they deserved their end… after all they were blood traitors. Missing them, Weasley? You know I can always be kind enough to send you the same way?"

Tears of fear, frustration and sadness shone in her eyes, but she kept her silence. "Hmm... Weasley, now that potter isn't there, who is doing his job on you?" he sneered.

Ginny went red in face. "What do you care, malfoy?" she asked angrily.

"Of course I don't!" he said haughtily. And turned to Suille who was attending him, "I'll take this bitch." Ginny's eyes were watering by now.

He looked around and walked in Seamus's direction, "he will be taken as well." Seamus simply scowled, but didn't say anything else.

He then walked up to Dennis, "aren't you that pesky Gryffindor mudblood potter-worshipping photographer's brother?! Shame you didn't go his way as well."

Dennis was very close to his brother, he still had not come to terms with the death of his brother and he took offence to anything negative said about Collin. Damn Gryffindor courage. "You knew nothing about my brother. At least he wasn't a pureblood slave driver like you!" Dennis said vehemently, though only Draco and Hermione could hear him.

Draco's eyes clearly showed his anger. "How dare you?! You'll pay for that." He pulled out his wand and muttered, "Géhenne."

Dennis cried out in pain. It wasn't as bad as crucio, but it still hurt. Draco was pleased, but didn't look like he wanted to stop it anytime soon. "See where has that smart mouth got you, mudblood? You should've been petrified by the basilisk like your brother."

"Leave him alone. Plus, Dennis was never there when the basilisk had attacked." Said a cold voice behind him, soft yet dangerous.

Nancy gasped, Michael cursed and Seamus was heard muttering about how people could not keep quiet even if their life depended on it. The three of them were the only ones who heard Hermione other than Dennis and Draco himself.

As Draco turned around his eyes clashed with chocolate brown orbs that were kept carefully blank by its owner. A slow, lazy smirk started to form on Draco's lips as he strode purposefully towards Hermione. Neville who was beside her flinched. Draco cast a withering glance in his direction, and turned back to Hermione, "I see the last and lone member of the infamous golden trio is here. I never thought I would live to see you without your boyfriends, Granger. Old dumbly-doore chap dead the same way as your war heroes? So how's the camp treating you? I'm not sure if there are any books here to quench your uncommon and disgusting thirst for books. Smartest witch of the year, my foot, see where you are now? Just where you should have been all your life, mudblood." He spat in her face.

Hermione calmly wiped away the spit away from her face. She badly wanted to claw his eyes out and wring his neck for having killed Tonks, for having tortured Dennis and for being a cocky bastard. Yet, her face was a blank mask. "Thanks for stating the biased and yet the obvious, now is there something else, _sir?_" she asked in a mocking voice.

Draco's eyes crackled with utter hate," as a matter of fact there is something else, I want a personal slave, and you'll fill that slot" he then leaned in, his nose nudging her ear, and said softly so only Hermione could hear him, "may be you can pay for that prat's impertinence and I'm personally going to make sure you are broken, inside out." And he pulled back. His eyes had taken on a different shade, they were turning sapphire blue.

He looked her in the eye, Hermione did not flinch, she simply looked back at him. Without warning Draco tried legimency on her, but she was ready, she kept her mind firmly shut. She did not lead him on false memories. Draco had to endure a mental collision with a sturdy wall. She wanted him to know that she was not to be played with. She let him know that she was not like the others; she was not going to let him get to her. How dare the bastard try to go through her thoughts and memories?

Draco was pissed off, simply because of the fact that he could not break her barriers. He had always prided himself to be a skilled legimens. After all he learnt it at the knees of his now dead aunt Bellatrix.

He glared hard at her; she countered the glare with one of her own. Without another word he turned and walked away with Suille but, not before catching a glimpse of the pure odium in her eyes. He would deal with her after she was delivered to him.

Hermione watched Draco stalk off towards the superior part of the camp. The wheels of her mind spinning. As the cliché goes, if looks could kill, Malfoy would've been six feet under by now.

She felt Seamus touch her shoulders reassuringly. She gathered herself. She noticed that Ginny was still very upset. She moved to Ginny and embraced her comfortingly. "Shh... Ginny, don't cry, everything will turn out alright. We need to wait patiently if we want to succeed. And don't let anything he says get to you; he simply is NOT worth your time."

"b-but Hermione, he insulted mum, and .. I don't want to be a slave for him.." she sobbed.

Hermione stared hard at Ginny, "where is that Gryffindor courage of yours? Pull yourself together.. he insults everybody, not just Mrs. Weasley, and none of us want to be his slave. You won't be alone anyways; Seamus and I will be there."

Seamus nodded, patting Ginny, "don't worry we will be there with you."

Ginny finally pulled herself together and said, "Silly me, crying over what the asshole said to me." The others moved closer to them.

"Dennis, you shouldn't have said that. You know Malfoy does things like that to get a raise out of people so he can torture them." Justin reprimanded him.

Dennis sulked silently. "Sorry" he mumbled.

Justin reached forward and clapped Dennis on the back, "its okay kid, just be careful about what you say around the death eaters hereafter."

Dennis nodded and said something which sounded like 'I'm not a kid' but none knew for sure.

Neville looked worriedly at Hermione, "take care 'mione, he wants you to be his personal slave… I don't like the sound of it."

"Trust me, I don't either, but I'll use it to our advantage. Meeting at the store room, tonight after chores. The password is centaurs." The rest of them nodded.

A death eater approached them, "now scat, you lot can go to your huts."

They all dispersed.

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Hermione, Parvati, Ginny and Seamus were walking towards the girls' hut. Seamus held Hermione's hand as they walked.

Draco caught sight of them and his eyes moved to one curly, brown haired muggle-born witch. His eyes were inscrutable for a minute.

Hermione felt someone burning a hole through her and turned to see Malfoy looking at her with venom. She simply ignored him and walked away with her friends. She knew Malfoy was going to make her life a living hell if she behaved thus in front of him, but she hated him and could do nothing about it.

Draco's eyes narrowed as he saw Seamus holding Hermione's hand. Or maybe the narrator imagined it.

Hermione was aware of Malfoy's steps. She could hear his footsteps as he moved towards the slave-camp doors as though he was walking alongside her. _'Yeah right Hermione, the pompous ass Malfoy walking along side? That's the height of absurdity!'_ Hermione thought. She also heard Suille's steps. But somehow Malfoy's was more prominent.

"I want them delivered at my doorstep in a week and a half. I don't trust Granger; make sure they are accompanied by one of the guards." Draco ordered authoritatively.

Suille nodded walking Draco to the gates.

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Seamus bid the girls good bye at the entrance of their hut and walked off to talk to Neville, Justin and Dennis. The girls moved into their hut.

Since going to Hogwarts was ruled out now, Hermione decided to ask Ginny about her trip to Hogwarts. "Did you find anything in Hogwarts?"

"Not much, but we did catch the headlines of the prophet, figures Rita is back to her old ways. These were what I noticed in the paper – victor is dead, I'm sorry Hermione" Hermione closed her eyes and simply nodded for Ginny to go on, "the ministry is completely in you-know-who's hand and there was a part where there were many letters published in the prophet that expressed sadness over the death of Lucius Malfoy! So I'm assuming he is dead." Ginny sounded pleased as she said the last sentence.

"I knew Lucius was dead, I saw Harry kill him." Parvati quipped.

"I knew about it only today morning, but, how come malfoy was acting like nothing was amiss…. Doesn't he miss daddy dearest? Now, who will teach him new dark spells and curses? May be the bastard never cared about… but honestly, I would never bother either. But there was absolutely nothing about him that could've hinted at the fact that his dad died during the war. He sounded as cocky as ever." Ginny said.

Hermione looked on without saying anything.

"Who else do we know is dead?" Hermione asked after a while.

"I know that the Carrows are dead, so is Bellatrix, mum killed her to avenge Ron's death. But other than them I don't think the dark side has lost many."

"Moving on to other matters, we have" Hermione said pointing to Ginny and herself, "to go to the malfoy estate in a few days. We need to do a lot of ground work before that because, I'm guessing, once we are in the manor we can't get out without Malfoy's explicit permission. And if he so much as suspects anything, he will report about us to you-know-who."

Parvati asked, "What do we do to prepare? Collect potions and stuff? Hermione, you need to make those coins before you go." Ginny nodded her consent.

Hermione looked out the window, "yes, I'll get that ready, and you need to collect the potions, and try to read as many books on dark arts as possible when you are in Hogwarts, but don't get caught."

Hermione was deep in thought for a few moments, deciding whether or not to inform Ginny about Aberforth's visit and about the surviving members of the Weasleys clan. Finally she relented with her conscious that Ginny deserved to know about her family. She decided that she will only reveal about the Weasleys.

"By the way Ginny, I met someone today, and I got news that Mr. Weasleys, Fred and George, Bill, Fleur and young Molly are alive and in hiding."

Ginny snapped her head to Hermione. "What?! How do you know this? Are you telling me this so I can feel better?" Ginny demanded fiercely, her eyes tearing up again.

"Ginny, I can't reveal my source, but I trust that person completely. And no, I'm not saying these things to make you feel better, if that was my intention, I would've brought all the Weasleys back to life." Hermione said sternly.

Ginny flew to Hermione's side and whispered, "Hermione, you're sure?"

"Yes, Ginny, I promise - your dad, bill & family and the twins are alive and in hiding." Ginny started sobbing uncontrollably onto Hermione's shoulders. Hermione gently massaged her shoulders. "Its okay gin, they are alright. Don't worry."

Once Ginny had cried her eyes out she shook her head, "look at me, I should be jumping with joy knowing that at least a part of my family is alive, and here I'm crying like a baby!"

"We would've done the same as well Ginny," Parvati said coming over to pat Ginny on the head. "But Hermione, how do you know this?"

Hermione looked a little uncomfortable; she did not want to reveal about Aberforth, it would only lead to more problems. She replied honestly, "Guys, I'm sorry; I can't give his/her name. But rest assured, you can trust me. And there are others who survived the war, its best if their names are not mentioned. Until you guys learn occlumency."

The other girls nodded. It was silent after that.

Hermione deduced roughly that the time could be around 4. That left her 3 hours before her next chore began.

Hermione looked at the other girls. Parvati was gazing out of the window. Ginny was lying down. She announced, "I need some air, I'll be back by around 6:30." With that she stepped out of the hut and walked to the store room. Once there, she pulled out the invisibility cloak, wrapped it around her and ran out of the camp towards the cave.

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She was glad that she was petite; the cloak was more than just big for her. Once inside the cave she threw the cloak over the sack of parchments. She grabbed the book Aberforth had given her from the transfiguration pile and observed it. The book seemed ancient. The pages had browned. '_The art of wandless magic_' she started reading the book…

_"Wandless magic is a branch of magical science that is highly advanced. It deals with being able to do magic without wands, and in some cases without any object to channel the magic in a wizard's blood. _

_Wandless magic requires extreme concentration, powerful magic blood, strength and a strong will power. It takes ages to learn wandless magic, and much more to use it efficiently…"_

Hermione skimmed the introduction parts, and got onto the parts teaching wandless magic.

"_First step to being a wandless is that one has to concentrate on one's soul. All thoughts have to be removed from the conscious; one should concentrate on the unconscious and untapped part of the brain. This phase may affect the person. During the concentration period one may have nightmares, grueling visions involving their loved ones –dead or alive, true or false._

_When the concentration period is completed, the person will feel a glow about them. This glow is from the inside, it will form an orb, whose color will depend on the purity of the person's soul. This orb will disappear into ones right wrist and will resurface from time to time. _

_Then, one will have to think up a place. This place mostly is imaginary. But creating this place is very important in wandless magic. All of one's strength and happiness will be drawn from this place. The more the person is at peace with this place, the stronger the magic. The creation of the said place will take a few days time. It may not exactly be what the person expects. The orb will help in the creation of the place. The orb, which is believed to be a part of the person's soul may throw up things or people in this world which or who will bring about happiness and strength._

_Once the creation of this place is complete and is accepted by ones mind, the orb will turn colorless for a few minutes and will go back to its initial color. One may try to do simple magic like trying to move an object or create fire. Later one can advance to tougher magical spells. One may also apparate without their wands at an advanced stage."_

And on and on the book went about wandless magic, how to achieve it and its side-effects. Once she finished the book, she revised it again and set to work. She kept the book away and sat Indian style on the floor, concentrated hard, and turned inwards. She was lost in herself. She saw her parents being killed by the death eaters, Harry being avada'ed by Voldemort, Ron being murdered by Bellatrix, the order crumbling. Then she saw her friends and herself in the future – being tortured, used as slaves..

She pulled herself out of these disturbing thoughts. And tried again. This time the images were more horrifying – she saw herself being raped by malfoy, Ginny being strangled by Zabini... Hermione withdrew herself from the horrifying images. Her eyes were wide in fear and leaking, she was sweating profusely.

She didn't understand why she saw malfoy… what was more confusing was that she had seen Zabini, all she knew about him was that he was a death-eater, though he hadn't actively participated in the war.

She tried over and over again. But there was no difference. Each time the images became more and more horrifying, resulting in Hermione being terrified by the time she pulled herself out of the visions.

Finally, as the sun was setting, she gave up trying to concentrate and pulled the invisibility cloak over herself and stepped out of the cave. This time, she walked leisurely back to the camp.

She used the walk to contemplate on other things. She decided that she will reveal the cave to the phoenix! She needed a way for communicating with the other phoenix! members. She could use coins like 5th year, but it could lead to suspicion – how can slaves have coins??, parchment - that could be snatched away, other things like a watch or something will attract too much attention, the object had to be something small, unnoticeable, and very ordinary for the guards to suspect anything.

Ah! Then it struck her! The proverbial light bulb! It might not be a very bright idea but still it was something to start working on….

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Author Notes: well here is the fifth chapter. So far, it is the longest ! I don't know when I'll be able to finish the next chapter. If you find anything off about my story or if you think I can use some improvement please express so.

Reviews are a must!!

About all that wandless magic and all, honestly I did not have any clue. I'm the proud owner of that mumbo-jumbo! But for the purpose of this fiction they will remain important facts.

I'm not sure when I'll update the next chapter, but until then take care, ciao!

Luv,

Azea!


	6. At Draco's

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters. If I did, I would be rolling in riches now!

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Author Notes: sixth chapter is up, so no further ado…

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Draco leaned back into his cushy leather chair, with his 4th glass of wine in hand, in his large study. He sat there petulantly. Earlier, he had owled Blaise Zabini demanding him to come over.

Blaise was the only person he trusted other than his mother, who was currently resting in her chambers.

"Limpy, I want another glass of wine," demanded Draco.

A tiny, limping old elf appeared looking scared. "Master, you've already had four glass of wine, don't you think.."

"no, I don't think I need you to tell me how many glasses of wine I've had, give me another one, and go iron your hands for questioning your master." Draco ordered.

The poor elf poured another glass of wine for Draco and disappeared to iron his hands.

Draco lifted the rim of the wine glass to his lips, took a sip and hurled the entire glass, wine and all, at the fireplace, in a fit of restlessness.

Two elves appeared in the study to clean the mess. "OUT" Draco barked. The elves didn't need to be told twice.

He was confused. He didn't know what he wanted, what he needed. He did not understand where he stood in life, and where he wanted to be. He couldn't figure out, for the life of him, why he felt incomplete and restless. He had money, power, women…. You name it, he had it. This was what he had wanted all his life. Now, he wasn't so sure.

The fireplace roared signaling the arrival of Blaise Zabini. The handsome, olive skinned half-Italian, of slighter build than Draco, walked out of the fireplace, dusting himself off soot. He had violet coloured iris.

"Hey mate, what was the emergency that you had to demand my generous presence?" Blaise asked good naturedly.

"Cut the crap, Blaise," Draco sulked.

Blaise took a moment to look around Draco's study and noticed how disarrayed it was. He saw the shattered wine glass and the stain on the expensive Persian carpets.

"What's got in such a foul mood?"

"Nothing. Everything, never you mind." was Draco's reply. Draco summoned an elf and ordered wine for Blaise.

"Okay.. Spill!"

"I went to the TDLR slave camp today, I need a few slaves. Picked up a few and they will be delivered in a weeks time."

"Is that all? Something has ruffled your feathers…"

"I met a few of our former school mates. There was Weasley, Finnegan loads more and granger."

"Granger… I thought she died in the war."

"No, that bitch survived." There was spite in Draco's voice.

"Are you glad for it?" Blaise asked a bit uncertainly.

"What are you on about? I wish she had died. Well, never mind, now I can do that."

Blaise gave him a disbelieving look. "So what has upset you so much?"

"Dunno, mate. I'm feeling restless.. I've a meeting with the dark lord tonight."

"Do you want to go?"

"Dunno"

"Why?"

"Dunno"

"Enough with the 'dunno'. I want a reply that is more than just 'dunno'."

"Okay."

"Draco, are you happy with your life? Glad that you have whatever you thought or think you wanted?"

"Honestly, I've no idea man… I've everything I've ever wanted. But, it not enough, there is something missing…"

"When was the last time you got laid?"

"Yesterday?"

"And who was the girl?"

"Some bimbo?"

"Its time you had a serious relationship, mate. You need someone to come home for."

"Well, I come home for my mum… isn't that enough? I'm not into serious relationship and stuff…. That's just not me."

"Give it a try once…"

"What about you, mate?"

"I'm on the look out for the Ms. Soul-mate."

"That's so sappy! Soul-mate… what's this nonsense?"

"Hmm… you won't understand it until you've met her.."

"Who is this _her_?"

"She will reveal herself in ample time."

"Whatever… so how is business?"

"Its going fine… what about you?"

"The dark lord wants me to go to France, to finish a deal with the minister there."

"So, when are you leaving?"

"Probably, after I've my slaves… I need someone to take care you mum."

"Okay… do you want to go?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"No, I guess not."

Draco was lost in his thoughts… after a few minutes he asked, "how come you're never directly involved with the dark lord?"

"I don't want to be"

"How come, he lets you walk so freely?"

"I never was a death eater, Draco. The dark lord thought I wasn't strong enough. Well, good for me. I may not enjoy life, but at least I'm not regretting it."

"Whatever you say, mate."

"I need to be on my way, Draco. Convey my love to Mrs. Malfoy. I'll come over, tomorrow, for tea."

"Yeah, sure."

Blaise disappeared in emerald flames.

Draco swirled the remains of his wine, as he sat there thinking how life would've been if the light had won.

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Hermione walked into the camp undetected, thanks to Harry's invisibility cloak. The sun was setting. Her mood was considerably better since the walk back to the camp. She headed for her shack.

No one was around. Ginny and Parvati were already on their way to their next slave duty.

Hermione removed the cloak and tucked it under her dress. So much to do in such less time.

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"where have you been?" dean asked as she joined him and Seamus in cleaning dishes.

"around. What have you guys been doing?" Hermione asked. Seamus gave her a knowing look, but kept his silence for which Hermione was grateful.

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I know that I am updating after more than a year! I am sorry… I'll update much sooner from now on.. that's a promise.

This chap is too short… but I decided that something is better than nothing..

Until next time,

Love,

Azea!


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